Many modellers have built and finished the Trumpeter kit, as such not much is needed to be said. For the casual OOB build it is a great model and as seen by many builds an awesome thing.

However, as I am building a historical BR 52 around March 1945, the kit is kind of useless, due to the masses of detailed errors, i.e headlights, wrong frame design, smoke box mistakes, dimension errors with the pipe covers (frost protection), tender rear side all wrong dimensions and many more. My website lists all the problems and shows (in the long run) modifications needed, all available research and publicly available documents, including a 1000 page repair manual and I hope it will help modellers in the future. It si thought to help and collect knowledge about railroad modelling with respect to war locomotives in 1/35 scale.A useful link to all modellers is my Flickr album of a restored BR 52 which I had the chance to visit at Sinsheim with a special grant and invitation of the museum to walk around on top of the engine and inside of it, including the fire box. Feel free to download/share or whatever those pictures, I have added a four of the almost 600 pics below:https://www.flickr.com/camerarollInside the driver's cabinOn the right hand side walkwaySand dome Fire box interior

Based on the research, major modifications evolved and over time, I had to destroy and scrap parts already built. The K4 T30 tender is almost completely scratch built as the kit dimensions are off and the frame is not useful for a real tender of this kind.

Rolled paper around the steam pipes representing the insulation for the extended frost versions

Adjustments to the coal bunker:And the water tank:Replacing the water tank with copper sheets at the correct width and cutting to size the rear box which is 1cm too wide with the kit.The plating also allows for a somewhat better effect of the used and bashed thin outer metal plates.

The pressure tanks are of different sizes in the kit, however they were both standardised and of the same length.

The driver's cabin floor, partially assembledDesigning the new frame interior (I had to cut all out again, as I assembled frame parts before doing the whole research)

Adding the water feeder pipes running to the injectorsThe injectors need to be cut into the frame, whey are mounted below the outer layer, not on top as shown in the LZ model manual.Frost protection partially added:The LZ models Knorr Doppelverbund Luftpumpe with some added bits and minor adjustments, an excellent thingy,Pipe dimensions and pipe layouts sketched Redesigning the cylindersBuilding the smoke boxLoco from above

And now off to some history (I have posted this before, so it is copy paste) as part of a 15 page research paper I have written, for those who are curious about the history:The history and the development of national railway systems and the changing shape of the worlds with the forthcoming of industrialisation and the industrial revolution are a topic by themselves and beyond my realm of time and scope for a modelling website, but I may highly recommend this topic in general. As the early times are not of vital importance to this build blog, but a later one, I will start with the early 20th century. To get a better view about the history and the importance of the railway, especially during the inter-war years which led to war time deficiencies, I need to dig into this matter a bit, before getting to the war-years and the actual production and development of the Kriegslokomotive.

After WW1 the German Reich had been imposed the burdens of the Treaty of Versaille from May 1919. As part of the Weimar Constitution, the “Staatsbahnen” (provincial railroads) were nationalised in 1920 on April 30 by a vote of the “Nationalversammlung” (national assembly), dated back to April 1 according to RGBl. Nr. 95, page 773p. (LINK) With §1.3 of the so-called “Staatsvertrag” clarifying that the whole stock of each provincial railroad be taken over by the “Deutsche Reichseisenbahnen - DR” (German National Railway).*1) http://alex.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/alex?aid=dra&datum=1920&page=1007&size=45The former “Staatsbahnen”, there were seven of them, each had their own nomenclature of engines, waggons, signs and regulation. From 1913-1919 the engine stockpile varied between. In perspective, the stockpile was about 20,000 engines, classified in 400 categories, which were successively reduced over time until later during the early 1940s they stood at less than 28! In 1920 the steam engines were classified into 99 categories, based on their axles. Later during July 1923 they were reclassified even further, then including the newly planned Einheitslokomotiven. The third and final renumbering plan got rid of now obsolete numbers as well as categories and further simplified the table below, by adding 7000+ numbers behind the class of the engine (the ones below), so that it would indicate the timely destruction of the respective train.Table of steam engine classes 1923, based on second renumbering convention01–19: Schnellzuglokomotiven (Express train locomotives)20–39: Personenzuglokomotiven (Passenger train l's)40–59: Güterzuglokomotiven (Goods train l's)60–79: Personenzug-Tenderlokomotiven (Passenger train tank l's)*280–96: Güterzug-Tenderlokomotiven (Goods train tank l's)*297: Zahnradbahnlokomotiven (Rack railway l's)98: (normalspurige) Lokalbahnlokomotiven (Branch line l's)99: Schmalspurlokomotiven (Narrow gauge l's)*2) Tank locomotives carry water on coal on board, without a tender

In addition to the simplification of the nomenclature of locomotives, the rationalisation of the tracks begun. Pre-1920, each Staatsbahn would build a bridge or tunnel above or under the tracks of another company's tracks in order to avoid cross tariffs and payments to others. With the creation of one entity, the tracks could be simplified and easier, better and faster transport was a result.As reparations were due to the victorious nations and in order to secure future payments, the National Railway was included within the Dawes Plan of 15th August, 1924. The Railway was ultimately restructured and renamed into “Deutsche Reichsbahngesellschaft – DRG” (German National Railway Company) and thus became a public holding corporation, which was requested by the creditors. This was fulfilled on 30th August, 1924 with the implementation of the „Gesetz über die Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (Reichsbahngesetz)“ RGBl. II p 272pp. § 3 states the creation of the DRG with 15bn Reichsmark in subscribed capital, separated in 2bn RM in preferred stock, 13bn RM in common equity*3) http://alex.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/alex?aid=drb&datum=1924&page=298&size=45Reparation payments of up to 600m RM by the DRG were foreseen for the upcoming years. Until 1932, when the Reichsbahnw as exempted from all further payments, after the Conference of Locarno, the Young plan had been implemented by now, it had paid a total of >3.2bn RM to the allies.As times had gotten settled for the DRG, the next episode will deal with the weak years of engine production (less than 200 in 1928) standardisation and further advances to a centralised railroad system up until 1942./StefanA preview:These are statistics, I have compiled, showing freight load and train capacities etc. during the war.

A few important abbreviations up front, as they will be encountered often, also in the following text passages...

A deeper view into the development of the German railroads in the early and mid 1920sWhile the respective Reichsverkehrsminister (transport secretary) was head of the Reichsbahn from 1920 until 1924, with the creation of the DRG the duty was transferred to the newly created position of a Generaldirektor (director general). Until his death in 1926 Rudolf Oeser headed the DRG followed by Julius Heinrich Dorpmüller who in turn headed the DRG until his death in July 1945. During Dorpmüllers reign, the Reichsbahn was undergoing a process of dramatical changes, especially during his later years as it's director.Along the development of the DR itself, the Reichsverkehrsministerium [RVM] (Reich Transportation Ministry) played a pivotal role in the development of the future German steam engine industry. The creation of the Vereinheitlichungsbüro [VB] (bureau for simplification) in October 1922, headed by August Meister, with the aim to simplify tools, machinery and enhancing standardisation of all future engine designs, the ministry created a powerful entity for the years to come. According to Bönig, this was also done due to pressure from the DR and the locomotive producers. From 1923 on, all initial designs and constructional planning of the German railroad industry originated from this bureau in Berlin, located within the Borsig factory premises, as Mr Meister was Borsig's chief designer. All 22 major locomotive producers were part of the VB and had their top level engineers involved.While the RB itself simplified the nomenclature and the stockpile of available engines, the VB worked on the simplification of the future output. Based on the input of the Lokomotiv-Normen-Ausschuss [LONA] (no clue) the VB implemented the first generalised catalogue of general norms for engines, the so-called LON-numbers, as well as standardised parts of wear to simplify repairs. Adding both developments together, the picture of a more standardised locomotive system was not too far ahead as of 1924. Plans called for the renumbering, demolition of old engines and standardisation to be finished by 1927. Though in Bavaria the last engines were reclassified as late as 1928, the plan worked as designed in general. By 1927 the VB had classified and planned in detail 11 Einheitslokomotiven (standardised locomotives), of which each class was only produced by a few allotted manufacturers.A closer look needs to be taken at the process between the Reichsbahn and the industry, i.e. the locomotive producers, as the developments in the 20's and 30's play a pivotal role during the ditching of some ministers and executives in 1933 and culminated in the transport crisis of 1939/1942.

The RB's progress, focussing on the production and standardisation of a few engines after WW1 in order to achieve the planned simplification, was driven by the Bauartdezernat (head of department for the classification of steam engines) of the Reichsbahn-Zentralamt [RZA] (Reichsbahn Central Office) Richard F. P. Wagner. The RZA was responsible for the technical development of the engines and track construction and had an office in Berlin and Munich. It handed ideas and designs to the VB, which in turn designed and planned it all. As the input from the RZA was immensely precise and specific, there was little room for modification to be done by the VB. This later lead to fights between the two entities about who caused the transport crisis!Meister and Wagner are seen as the two men who had driven steam locomotive development in Germany and have achieved, together with the industry, the first standardised new engines catalogue by 1925. As Meister was a leading engineer, the first designs are credited to him and as he was from Berlin (Prussia), the first Einheitslokomotiven resembles the older Prussian G12, P8, and T20 ones. Production of these new engines (BR 01, 02, 43 and 44) was slow not only because of the recession and slow economy, but also due to their increased weight. The old tracks had to be improved and changed in order for the newer engines to be able to run on the, As such, initial production orders were barely greater than 10. From 1925-1938 the German locomotive production was less than 1/10 of the production it had during WW1.A few photos for you,The freight locomotives G12 (BR 58.10) 1'E1' h2 vs BR 43, 1'E h2vs sources: Drehscheibe Online http://bilder.bw-basdorf.de/VB995/dso.05022012/g12-5667-_855x540.jpg , Wikipedia https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/43_001_auf_der_MOROP_-_Ausstellung_in_Radebeul_Ost.jpg/800px-43_001_auf_der_MOROP_-_Ausstellung_in_Radebeul_Ost.jpg

Had the Reichsbahn ordered and received some 600 engines in 1924, this had shrunk to about 100 in 1930. Including exports (reparation payments) the German locomotive producers had a combined output of 90,000t in 1924 which shrunk to 50,000t in 1930. To put this into perspective, in 1918 this was 220,000t and in 1944 some 530,000t. In 1935, the total past orders and arrivals of standardised locomotives stood at 500 for the DRG which was less than 2% of the total stockpile of 25,000 pieces.The tracks alone are not a main contributor to the low output however. After WW1 in 1919 many new locomotive producers emerged, amongst them Rheinmetall, Krupp and AEG. Borsig (the main producer of 5000 engine up to 1923) saw increasing pressure as it had to share production allotments with the competition and the above three also started building electrical engines and increased competition even further. HANOMAG had an annual production of 200-300 in the years after 1918, but a mere 30 to 50 between 1926 and 1928. Bönig also mentions that the industry's production capacity in 1929 was 6000, while demand was only 121 by the DRG! Had there been 43 companies employing 28,000 people in 1925, there were only 11 left in 1933 employing 1794 workers only!A quick info about the weird 1'C h2 numbers...The Letters A-E represent the number of powered axles, A=1, B=2....The numbers represent non powerd axles.The ' separates moving (turning left right) axles from fixed ones. h = hot steam, n = wet steamThe numbers behind the h/n represent the number of cylindersThe BR 52 is a 1'E h2 as it has on axle, non-powered, moving freely in front, separated from E=5 axles behind and is powered by hot steam (superheated) and 2 cylinders....I have actually just learned this now, therefore the post is later than the others^^ lol.

Have a great evening,more later, feel free to comment, ask, hate, rage or whatever./Stefan

Hi StefanThis is insane. Please stop showing off your work, because it makes our work look like something from the kindergarden.Just kidding my friend, your work is awesome and very inspiring.What color scheme are you planing?Jacob

Hi Stefan,were did photograph the real one? I know omly of three non-rebuild BR52, Speyer, DDM Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg and a betriebsfähige in Baden-Württemberg. Amazing work!If I will ever build another BR52 I will stick to CMK`s Wannentender.Hans-Hermann

I need to find that not-worthy emoji too, and incidentally you’ve convinced me to blow up/wreck my Trumpy BR52 as soon as possible so thanks for the inspiration! And I hope you’re going to include facilities to have smoke and steam belching from the appropriate orifices? Great work, will be following this closely.

Hans-Herrmannthe train you are referring to is not in Speyer but in Sinsheim. Speyer has got the Boeing 747 and the space shuttle, but both museums belong together, as you might know. The only problem is that the 52 3109 has a bar frame, we need a plate frame though *1) difference see below). The running train in BW at the Eisenbahnfreunde Zolernalb would be awesome to visit. I contacted them but have not received an answer yet. I will go to Berlin shortly to see the 52 6666 and the 52 in the Technikmuseum again, my camera broke during the last visit Still getting the arrangements with the museum sorted as of now. And I need to take a few days off from work, too

Jacob

As about 99% of the post 42 produced engines were painted in RAL 7021, that is what I am going for. The very few with the strange camo themes are cool, but none of them was in Eberswalde as far as I have found out so far. As such, as they were, it will be RAL 7021 all over), except for the roof, RAL 7016. My WR360 C14 will receive RAL 7016 all over as pre-1943 this was the standard colours until a Fuehrerbefehl changed it as it was too light. As for now, I am trying to match the train numbers with the tenders used to find an engine eligible for my built, I am doing a few a day, but this just takes ages...http://www.albert-gieseler.de/dampf_de/lokdaten0/lokdatendet163.shtmlAnd matching them with this book's research, some 120+ pages of BR52 production number statistics.:It might sound stupid, but the reason doing this is that I want to build a train that has not been involved in the transport of KZ prisoners, at least I want to do my best at avoiding it.

Tim,actually, I have dismantled and rebuilt the running gear in order to make it move. I have laid out the plan for quartering the wheels, not sure if it is possibe though.This is the stock kit:[/url]After drilling[/url]I thought about putting the power gear into the front of the tender's water tank, as the rear will be visible as a maintenance man is working in the interior, while the engine is inside the shed. But the front works as it is invisible from the rear and cables could run easily through the water hoses... But as I suck at electricity stuff, I think this is way beyond me, the stem idea sounds great, though!While talking about wheels, the gap between the leaf spring connectors is between the third and the fourth axle (from the rear) not the second and the third as Trumpeter did it, the whole frame is wrong. A bunch of listings. (I had my frame built, then noticed these problems as at first, I wanted to build it OOB)

At the rear, some adjustments are needed also:As for the diagram below: Yellow indicates relevant frame parts. The red markings are the vectors needed for the fire box support structure. (All is missing and the one part included is wrong in the kit). The front support rests within the frame and only two little blocks (left and right) stick out on top. (Trumpeter has a massive bar on to all the way across). My first photo of the engine at Sinsheim shows this. (The feature is the same with BAR and PLATE-frames. The blue painting I did within my photo indicates the lateral support frame which was used with the plate frame, but not the bar frame (Sinsheim engine), but it can be clearly seen on the technical drawing below and other photos. It is important to keep all these support sections at a slight angle, as the fre box itself is tilted towards the front also. The bos rests, without welding, nothing, between those two rods in the front and 2 in the rear. This allows it to expand and contract (Heat differences male it grow and shrink and in addition the engine is shaking when running and thus it needs a bit of "Spiel".*2)and my picture from Sinsheim:And my crude first version

Thanks to Laura-Ann, she took her time to highlight some more problems:The lower frame support structures are also completely missing. (No big deal, no person will ever see them, but as I thinned out the frame and removed the support seams, it is so unstable now, I need to incude them^^.) These frame sections also show that both pressure tanks are of the same size.*2) same source as above.

An interesting thing is this:A 1943 propaganda film "Kriegslokomotiven" can be found on youtube, has exactly the same interior design of the cabin as the Sinsheim one. Considering that the Sinsheim engine was used post-war, this is quite cool.

Enoguh blabla, need to work now^^Have a great day./Stefan

*1)Plate FrameThis is the frame concept used with most BR52s, some 6700+ had been produced. It is about 28mm thick metal with very few sparrings and as such one long solid plate. These frames were the early designs and were less flexible and were more rigid and prone to cracking.

All BR50s had been built with Bar frames, as was common due to its advantages, but for the BR52, the plate frame came in use again.Why did they use it? Well, they needed the machinery which they had to use to cut bar frames, for tanks and artillery production. The economy as a whole did not have enough machines and thus switched production to the less common (as old school) plate frame. As old (newer design frames) were still available from the BR-50, some 300+ BR52s received the plate frame, some as late as December 1943. As some factories used up the frames faster than others, it might be that Borsig used the Barrenrahmen till late 43 while WLF had theirs depleted already in April or so.*3)Bar FrameBar frames, approx. 100mm thick, are thicker than plate frames but have many sparring. They are about 100mm thick, weigh less than the plate frame and were thus preferably used since 1900 as it saves weight. bar frames are also more flexible and could be used for heavier engines as time passed. The BR-50, the pre-war heavy engine, i.e. the predecessor of the BR-52 used this kind of frame and as production was changed, there were hundreds of these frames still lying around all over Germany. Only some 300+ Barrenrahmen had been used for the first BR52s.*2)http://www.drg-ler.de/Bilder/Forum/Ty2-BR52-rama-kociol.jpg*3)http://dlok.dgeg.de/26.htm - Discussion only

Stefan,I did a couple of pics (about 50) of the Zollernalbbahn 52 7596 in Dampflokwerk Meinigen in 2015. If you like; i can share it with you. Contact me via PM. I am not a railroad fan but I think I did some god coverage.

Morning Frederick,Actually, no, I studied business. Learned the stuff during my research prior and during the build. A big thanks to Tim Marlow who taught me most of the English terms for technical steam stuff, where I don't even know the German ones^^.

Jerry, I am by no means a sir. The knighthood is nothing evn close to mehr xD. I am just an average Joe/Max

Hhb, p sent, awesome offer!

Hahahahaha. This is a translation problem. In English "Sir" is just the polite and formal way of addressing a man. I believe that maybe you are thinking of "Sire",which would be used when addressing the King. Or then again,you may just be a humble and self deprecating kind of guy ! Either way,the modeling work is awesome.J

Thanks for your email - to answer your questions here’s my Trumpy BR52 built oob a few years ago with all its sins and omissions. You’re very welcome to use it to illustrate how bad it is compared to your brilliant project, far from being offended I’m keen to learn more…before the Russian partisans run it (mine, that is) off the rails in an explosion of wreckage.

Hi Stef, You mentioned quartering and this photo was just below that text:

Did this photo show the status before the quartering ? As far as I know the connections for the rods on the wheels on the same axle shall be offset by 90 degrees. I assume that you know what it should look like, I was just getting worried by that photo ....

Jerry,I lived in Canada for a long time, I speak English more often than German^^. I was referring to the Knight Bachelor, not the "normal sir prefix" as a joke^^.As I am a young man, and not a seasoned modeller, I do not feel that the prexfix sir is suited for me. I know it is polite n stuff, but as I said, I am just a young man, nothing more^^. I thank you nontheless for your kind words.

Robin, no worries, this is not glued and not supposed to show the quatered layout. I just put the wheels on there for the "show". I only got it quartered on paper and measured. Thanks for your warning words

Tim,why would I bash your model? I love all the 52 builds and as stated previously, I am impressed by everyone who built this massive thing. I am just trying to do a big fix, but no sane person will ever know (once finished) which one would be a more accurate one or not just by seeing some pics of it. I just build veeeery few models but try to be as accurate as I can, nothing wrong with either method, all are just as good!

I was busy at a snow cave camp, taught some people how to build them and survive in the snow^^ so no modelling.Hope you had a great weekend,cheers and thanks for checking in,/Stefan

Well,I thought I could fix this without force, but I will have to saw and cut apart the frame for a third time. *1)Vs:The whole shape is wrong

Shall I cut the front section off vertically, or only the superstructure in the front (horizontally) and then take it apart? Or how can I do this? Does anyone have an idea? It is fixed very well and I am scared to destroy the kit, but I need to change it...Thanks for any help and thoughts up front./Stefan

Frosty snowy day,the smoke box support structure lost, it has been cut away. Now some holes need to be drilled into the "floor" panel, remove more frame side parts, cut vertically to the rear of the support structure with a power saw and then the whole thing will be rebuilt anew. (I hope this won't destroy the kit I will reuse the top, which I had already modified, but will modify further, to adjust to the corrected radius of the smoke box.Cheers,/Stefan

Hi Tim,na, it won't fix anything of the frame as it leaves the frame itself untouched. The cabin walls will be too thin as the train had a double walled cabin and the replacement will be too thin.It will add nice bling bling, for the show and sake of it, but that's it.I am using some Eduard Big ED things, (kind of similar as what you got there) but many parts are wrong and only for the show of golden stuff... If you want to build a fairly exact replica, you will not be able to use many parts of it, if you simply want to build an awesome train for show, build it with the bling and enjoy it, it will be awesome either way!

Mark, cheers!Am busy building a WR 360 C14 at 1/72 scale along the way and as I have not decided and figured out how to fix the front of the frame, I need to think some more about it...

some more research and planning was needed. Targets were the frame, strange pipes, the driver's cabin and whatever I spotted in the propaganda movie.

I was wondering about this pipe here in the front for some time, but to some extent, I have solved the riddle. It is only present on engines with the advanced frost protection (yellow crosses in the following pictures), however, not on all of them, as on some the pipe is below the boiler's belly!

Below you can see the two pipes with a virtual ugly pain-drawn connection.

Red arrows showing the steam pipe vs no steam pipe and in the front they do point to the chimney cover (Only 100% sign of advanced frost protection)

Also notice that when no advanced frost protection was present, the steam-feeding pipe towards the compressor sometimes went along the boiler's right side as indicated by a red arrow in the above picture...

While the BR50 had 2 water level indicators, the 52 only had one on the left and some manual thing on the right-hand side... Also; notice the 2x3 grease pumps in addition to the automatic Bosch grease pump discussed earlier.

Notice the thin arrow to the very right... Trumpeter, Voyager and all have a hole on both frame support sides there, they did never exist, only on the right-hand side were sparrings, not on the left.

And in case you need to turn on the lights, here are the 4 switches, behind the 5 hand crank wheels to adjust the steam flow to various targets (next post):

Great pics Stef, I’m almost tempted to rip the cab roof off mine & detail the inside now. What exactly was the frost protection mechanism and what did it protect? I assume that they kept the fire going 24/7 in cold weather, so presumably it pumped (electrically?) hot water round to…the tender water tank?